“There I was, in the middle of my first black belt exam at the tender age of 22, ready to begin the random assault drill. I was surrounded, attackers with knives, bats, clubs and pistols, but I was ready. training for years. Sensei’s panel watched me, Ross, Cestari, Blandino, Betts, they were all there and I was ready. One by one they attacked and I dispatched them clean and quickly. The knife was easily removed; the bat was a game of children for the mother. They were treated as quickly as they arrived without any problem. I AM INVINCIBLE !!! “
Forward to my real life. While visiting a friend at the university, we went to a typical night. Well, one thing leads to another, as these things often happen: who touched whose girlfriend, or who spilled whose beer, it didn’t really matter. Before I knew it, I saw my friend get punched and he was on his feet. I immediately tried to get close to him as fast as I could offer retribution, but before I knew it I was hit on the back of the head with something hard. When I turned in the direction of the attack I came face to face with two or three very pissed off frat boys.
The rest is hard to remember, lots of shoving, shoving, and occasionally hitting someone who wasn’t me and being for someone or something that wasn’t. It wasn’t pretty, it was frustrating. There was no time to be afraid, adrenaline ran through me. After a short time (which felt like an eternity), a little voice appeared in my head and said: You are locked in here and you need to get out.
When we finally pushed open the door, the entire frat house (about 60 men) seemed to converge on us. Trash cans and beer bottles were thrown at us from the second floor and all I wanted to do was make sure my friends were okay. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (which was only about 10 minutes) we managed to get out of there. Beaten, cut and bruised, but alive. I was in great shape and you could say I gave more than I received, but this was insane. These were college students, future accountants, lawyers, executives, and doctors who used bottles, pool cues, trash cans, and everything else that wasn’t nailed down to hit us the best they could. They were as bad and as dangerous as any criminal you will meet.
Where did all my training go? What happened to all the good throws and takedowns? Why was it so difficult to get a good shot? I know my martial arts training helped me survive, but I didn’t “feel” like I was practicing. “I felt a bit cheated, but instead of blaming my training, I looked for a real solution and a plausible answer.
Unfortunately, this is not an exclusive event and I have had the same results. A question came to mind: What am I doing wrong in my martial arts training?
One of the deadliest problems with martial arts and self defense is the magic pill notion that it will be able to protect you and your loved ones against multiple vicious attacks regardless of who and how many. And you will be able to do this without a scratch or even a blemish. This is something we all want to believe. Who doesn’t want to know with 100% certainty that they will be able to fight and protect their loved ones from harm? He spends countless dollars and countless hours training, watching videos going to seminars in hopes of coming back with the answer.
Experts don’t help simply because they don’t know or don’t care. They may be intending to gamble, but because they are ex-military, police, special ops, that doesn’t mean they’ve ever been in a fight or were taught the correct and more realistic way to defend themselves. They learned from martial artists who are in the same boat, just by guessing what you can do.
So what about dealing with multiple bullies? First, you should always assume that they are there. Whether you are in an alley, in a bar, or on patrol, you are at a great disadvantage if your attacker chooses the time and place of the assault. If you are a law enforcement officer, you are in your neighborhood or at your home. Many domestic arguments were interrupted by the police officer doing his job, only to be attacked by the wife beaten in the process. So you should always assume the worst tactically and train accordingly.
Know that standing up and fighting with more than one person puts you at a serious disadvantage. Keep a couple of key points in mind, if you can get away, great. Put as much distance as possible between you and them. You just fight what’s in front of you and keep moving forward. When you train, practice to gain ground. This will keep your main target off balance and moving targets are always harder to hit. It always takes ground.
If you train the right kind of melee techniques, the weapons won’t matter, always attack. Getting hit, stabbed, or shot while attacking is very different from being hit, stabbed, or shot while being killed. You will be injured, the goal is to minimize your injury and maximize theirs. You’ll get hurt, harden, and get over it.
Some simple rules to remember:
Always assume there is more than one aggressor
Treat every attacker like an armed attacker
Decide that you will be in pain and injured.
Always keep moving and gaining ground, this will keep your attackers off balance, create openings to escape, and make it harder to hit.
You can only “fight” with one person at a time: deal with what is in front of you
Strike first when possible
Weapons increase your effectiveness
There is no “magic pill”, any that tells you that you can stand up and fight multiple assailants. Yes, we still practice the random assault drill, but the purpose is emphasized that yours is not for you to stand up and fight, but to disorient and tire you so that we can recreate some of the frustration of a real fight. The exercise teaches you not to think, but to react and move. This is the core of true self defense.
